California Governor Jerry Brown signed a law that bans the word “alien” from the state’s labor laws.
Jerry, the problem isn’t what you call them, the problem is what side of the border you let them stay on.
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So no reference to “alien” corporations (incorporated in a country other than the USA)? It’s just a word that comes from a Latin adjective meaning “other”.
“Immigrant” may be some kind of substitute, but there are logical subcategories to this designation: those here legally, and those not. These subcategories are both de facto and de jure different in quality in the written laws of both the state and the country (not to mention in the view of the nation). How does California propose to refer to these people, instead?
“Undocumented” is precisely too imprecise for legal purposes, as it describes neither the documents they are lacking nor the reasons they lack them. It is therefore useless for adjudicatory purposes.
“Visitors”? “Guests”? “Border-crossers present on our territory”? “”Aspiring Americans”? “Anchor Individuals”? Please. This was a nation of laws.
So no reference to “alien” corporations (incorporated in a country other than the USA)? It’s just a word that comes from a Latin adjective meaning “other”.
“Immigrant” may be some kind of substitute, but there are logical subcategories to this designation: those here legally, and those not. These subcategories are both de facto and de jure different in quality in the written laws of both the state and the country (not to mention in the view of the nation). How does California propose to refer to these people, instead?
“Undocumented” is precisely too imprecise for legal purposes, as it describes neither the documents they are lacking nor the reasons they lack them. It is therefore useless for adjudicatory purposes.
“Visitors”? “Guests”? “Border-crossers present on our territory”? “”Aspiring Americans”? “Anchor Individuals”? Please. This was a nation of laws.
Invaders is far more accurate, how about they get called what they are instead of everything they aren’t?
Perhaps Californians should go back to using the description for Mexicans in the country illegally in use when I was a kid growing up there…wetbacks!
Blatant racism against Vulcans and Martians